Free Wi-Fi software nixes need for routers

Researchers are making available software they say can be used to link nearby computers via Wi-Fi without a router and that someday could be used by cell phone users to make free calls. (more...)

The Five Hottest Nerds

Merriam-Webster defines a “nerd” as “an unstylish, unattractive, or socially inept person, especially one slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits.” The girls listed here are certainly fastidious about their intellectual pursuits and/or are socially inept, but they're anything but unattractive (a little leeway for the purposes of this list, please). All these girls earn their nerd status because they either have played a nerd on screen or they are nerds in real life. (more...)

Via: DOUBLE viking

Best freeware and open source

OpenOffice.org free productivity suite *****
AbiWord Free Word processing *****
PrestoNotes Desktop Notes

TurboNotes - Sticky notes
StyckyPad - Sticky notes
Stickies - Sticky notes
DBDesigner Database
CutePDF Writer PDF Software

GanttProject 2.0 project management
AceMoney Lite Financial Management
Grisbi 0.5.7 personal finance manager
NeoMem Personal Information Manager
Programmers Notepad 2.0.6.1 text editor with special features for coders

Notepad++ Notepad Replacement
Notepad2 1.0.12 text editor
o3find 0.82 Full Text Search for OpenOffice.org documents.
ConvertAll 0.3.1 Unit Conversion program
Wikidpad 1.1.6 Wiki-like notebook

TreeLine 0.14.1 Free Word processing
Tinyspell Spelling Tools
Wordweb Thesaurus*****
TheSage Thesaurus*****
ReplaceEm Text Tools

PagePlus SE - Free Desktop Publishing Software
Hyperwords *****
Wikipedia -the best site around
Google Desktop
Yahoo! Desktop Search
Copernic Desktop Search 1.63
WriteBoard Create, edit, and share documents in your browser

Groove Virtual Office Online file-sharing and collaboration tool
dotWidget 1.0
iColorFolder 1.4.2***** Change the color of your folders
BB4Win Shell replacement
A43 File Management Utility Replace explorer

Brico Packs Desktop enhancement*****
CursorXp Freeware****
WindowsBlinds Free version****
BootSkin Freeware****
ThemeManager Freeware version****

LogonXp****

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Best Browsers - Best Email clients - Best FTP - Proxy-P2P- Best News readers

Firefox *****
Avant ****
Maxthon*****

Opera *****
Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5 *****
Pegasus Mail
FileZilla 2.2.18 ftp
SmartFTP 2.0.995.3 ftp

Hmailserver 4.1.1-Build-140
HTTrack Website Copier 3.40 -offline browser utility
FlashGot -downloader
Privoxy -web proxy*****
Tor - anonymous Internet communication system*****

LimeWire p2p
Bittorrent p2p
FolderShare (Windows) sharing
FolderShare (Mac)
Flickr *****

Feedreader ****
GreatNews Rss Reader

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Best Antivirus >> Best Firewall >> Best Adware/Spyware>>Popups

AVG free (antivirus)*****

Avast (antivirus)****
Bitdefender 8 Free Edition(antivirus)
ClamWin Free AntiVirus 0.88
Comodo AntiVirus
AntiVir PersonalEdition
ZoneAlarm free (firewall)*****

Comodo Personal Firewall
Kerio (firewall)
Sygate (firewall)
Outpost Firewall (firewall)
GRC Shields Up
AirDefense Personal Lite

All-in-One Secretmaker
Comodo AntiSpam
Lavasoft Ad-aware *****
Spybot *****
Windows defender ****
SpywareBlaster****

Trend Micro HouseCall
HijackThis 1.99.1

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Best Online Antivirus scanners

BitDefender Free Online Virus Scan (requires ActiveX)
Computer Associates eTrust Antivirus Web Scanner
Freedom Online Virus Check
F-Secure Online Virus Scanner

Kaspersky Online Scanner (scanner requires ActiveX)
McAfee FreeScan
Panda ActiveScan
RAV Antivirus (scans a file)
Symantec security and virus checks (scanner requires ActiveX)
Trend Micro HouseCall (requires use of a setup program for Netscape browsers)

Virus Total (scans a file)
Pc Pitstop *****

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Best Web based mail

Gmail ****
Yahoo Mail *****

MSN Hotmail ***
AIM Mail ****
Inbox Mail *****
MyWay Mail**
Fastmail***

30gigs**
HushMail
Walla Mail
Goowy Mail

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Best Burning Software

CDBurnerXP Pro
Deep Burner

BurnAtOnce
ImgBurn
DVD Shrink
LC ISO Creator

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Best Graphics

GIMP 2.2.10*****
Paint.NET 2.6*****

Blender 2.41 *****
Inkscape 0.43 *****
PhotoFiltre *****
PhotoPlus 6****
DrawPlus 4 - Free Graphic Design and Vector Drawing Software

3DPlus 2 - Free 3D Animation and modeling Software
IrfanView
PhotoVista Panorama
Tux Typing 2 1.5.3
Fast Stone Capture - image capture
Fast Stone Photo Resizer

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Best Html Editors - Best CSS Editors - Best PHP


Nvu 1.0 *****
HTML-Kit*****
Cascade DTP
Dev-PHP IDE
DHE Editor
WebPlus 6 - Free Web Site Design & Publishing Software

Alleycode
TopStyle Lite 3.10****
1stPage HTML Editor
PhpDesigner 2006

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Best Blog desktop publishers

Qumana
Windows Live Writer

BlogDesk

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Best Sound - Best Video- Best Music Organizers

Audacity 1.2.4b Free sound editor *****
Gungirl Sequencer 0.3.1 Sequencer
Hydrogen 0.9.4-svn Advanced Drum Machine

wxMusik 0.4.2.2 An open-source, cross-platform multimedia player and library.
VirtualDub 1.6.14 VirtualDub is a video capture/processing utility
MusikCube 1.0RC2 Music “library” application similar to iTunes
CoolPlayer build 215 Audio Player similar to Winamp

Media Player Classic 6.4.9.0 Media Player Classic is an all-in-one video player
Foobar2000 Media player
Audiograbber Rip music from cd
iTunes Player/Organizer
Yahoo! Music Jukebox

Kristal Audio Engine
Pandora Listen music online
Audiri Listen music online

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Best Calendars - Best Organizers

Chaos Manager Organizers

Google Picasa Photo organizer
Fast Stone Image Viewer ( browser,converter,editor)
Rainlendar 0.22.1 Calendar
Yahoo Calendar
Chandler calendar
Yahoo Widgets

Ta-Da List
Del.icio.us bookmarking
SyncNotes
FreeMind -mapping
Furl bookmarking
XnView organizer

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Best IM and Telephony

Trillian Basic
Skype
QNext
Google Talk
Gaim
Miranda IM

Yahoo! Messenger
MSN Messenger

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Best Blogging tools

WordPress*****
Blogger ****
LiveJournal

Xanga Classic
Blogsome
Typolis

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Best System Tools

PC Inspector File Recovery
Advanced Windows Care (repair and fix windows)
RegToy - tweak and manage xp

TuneXP - system tuneup*****(all in one speedup)
TweakUI -tweaking
WinDirStat 1.1.2 disk usage statistics
Virtual Magnifying Glass v2.36 screen magnification
TaskSwitchXP 2.09

7-Zip 4.32 file archiver *****
Izarc file archiver
ZipGenious file archiver
TUGZip file archiver
TrueCrypt 4.1 encryption

AxCrypt 1.6.2.3 encryption
Cryptainer LE disk encryption
KeePass 1.04 password storage
Startup Control Panel -startup
Freecommander 2004 -file manager

Cacheman- memory management
Process Explorer -system monitoring
Registry Commander -reg. editor
Erunt -reg tools
TweakNow RegCleaner Standard

RegClean
Regseeker -reg cleaner****
Regcleaner reg cleaner ****
NTREGOPT -registry optimization
Eraser -secure deletion

X-Setup -last free version
Daemon Tools CD disk image virtual drive
CCleaner 1.27.260 - Crap Cleaner *****- reg cleaner, disk cleaner ,uninstaller
Advanced Disk Cleaner disk cleaner
WinDriversBackup - driver backup

Driver Cleaner
Starter-startup
Autoruns-startup
FullSync 0.9.1 file synchronization and backup
Comodo BackUp
SyncBack - backup

Replicator v3.3.4 backup
Diskeeper Lite 9 & NTI Backup Now
PageDefrag - defragmentation tool
GMail Drive 1.0.9
Free Download Manager
HDClone Freee Edition -move content from your hard drive

CPU-Z system information
Unlocker
SendToAny SendTo menu enhancement
Undelete recover lost files
Unknown Devices - Hardware identifier

XP Syspad Windows system utility

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Best Content Management System - Web Tools

Joomla (cms)
XOOPS (cms)
Php Wiki
Blog CMS
MODx (cms)

Drupal (cms)
JetBox (cms)
Simple Machines Forum
Php Shop
osCommerce (shop e-commerce)

InnoDisk ReadyBoost USB Drive Goes Internal

ReadyBoost is one of the several things you can do to speed up Vista if you are stuck with 1GB RAM. You'll need to plug in a 2GB or larger flash drive for optimal results, but you lose a precious USB port as well. Now, what if you have an extra USB header available inside your rig. Taiwanese manufacturer InnoDisk has come up with an internal ReadyBoost solution that connects to your mobo's USB pin header. Local stores are still waiting for stocks so I couldn't get a closer look. The drive operates at 3MB/s for 512KB random read/write and 5MB/s for 4KB. These numbers meet the requirement set out by Microsoft - 2.5MB/s for 4k random read and 1.75MB/s for 512k write. InnoDisk did its own testing, reporting an overall performance improvement ranging from 18 to 26%. At $120 HKD or $15 USD, the 2GB seems to be about right as the drive isn't exactly a speed demon.

Via: Everything USB